Summer’s Over

It’s official now… the last beach trip / vacation of the summer is over and we’ve returned home to a much cooler, milder Georgia.

We spent the last week down in Myrtle Beach, at a resort called the Sea Mist. The "we" is pretty inclusive… 4 families went. The pictures are posted.

As of now everyone is still speaking to each other, so my guess is that the vacation went pretty well.

The ‘resort’ included a putt-putt golf-course (kind of small, unexciting one), a kid’s water park (had a lazy river, a medium size slide, and some small slides), miscellaneous pools and jacuzzi’s, and the beach. Oh, and how could I forget free entrance into the Family Kingdom Amusement Park, a park that looked almost exactly like it was built using Roller Coaster Tycoon.

The weather was terrific and warm, yet towards the end we were having to push the boys into doing anything that might include the words ‘water’ and ‘outside’…. except the amusement park (Tyler still only rates it a 5 out of 10, but that may be because he was still 2 inches shy of being able to ride the roller coaster with Zack). 52" in the magical number that roller coaster engineers use to determine who will be riding their rides, and he’s 50". The kiddie roller coaster required you to be less than 48", so Tyler was plain out of roller-coaster luck.

Cameron was about 47", and most rides (except the roller coaster) said you could ride with an adult if you were under 48". And alone over 48", so they got to ride plenty of rides and even run around and ride by themselves. Early in the week it was very slow, but as the week wore on traffic picked up, as the weekend was the last of the season.

A semi-brief run-down of the days:

Sunday: Arrive, check-in, late swimming in the pools. I get a little nervous about all the kids jumping around and screaming at 10pm but nobody comes out on their balcony and glares at us… Dennis jumps in and wrestles with the kids and retreats … I jump in and wrestle with the kids, injuring all of them at least once… play "Sharks and Minnows" with them but soon after that I retreat.

Monday: Kids’ water-park.. I love the lazy river… I take David, Gina, Tyler, Cameron and start following them around but soon realize they can’t get lost/hurt so I jump into the lazy river. Cruise the lazy river with Bev and Dennis for a while, and come up with the idea for a project I may start working on. Later that day we hit the beach and the waves are pretty brutal. They’re in the 2′-3′ range and pretty continuous… no breaks. That night we hit the amusement park and ride the log flume the first ride and get soaked.

Tuesday: We go to the kids’ activity pool which is remarkably like the kids’ water park without the lazy river and big slide, but closer to the beach so we go back and forth a couple times. Waves are much calmer. Amusement park that night.

Wednesday: Kids’ water park… all… day… long. In the afternoon the kids wandered back up to the room and the adults stayed down in the sun, we moved to the pool next to the buildings our room was in… Eagles T-shirt store goes up in flames.

Thursday: Some pool, some putt-putt…. I think Tyler is bored with putt-putt now. He’s not really trying to get it into the hole and finds more enjoyment picking up the ball and throwing it into the hole and watching it bounce out. We go to a raw-bar (Dennis and Bev are leaving the next day) that night and I try some oysters. Not impressed with the grit… but otherwise not bad. Tyler takes over the camera for a little while.

Friday: Spent some time in the arcade, maybe some pool time… it’s all blurring together now. Went for a walk on the beach at dusk/night. I get my leg caught in a hole.

Saturday: Last day and Tyler doesn’t want to do anything in the daytime so we let him do nothing. Teresa, Cameron and I go to the beach and Cameron and I build sandcastles. We go out to eat that night at a seafood buffet that is delicious. Tyler eats 2 plates of crab-legs, and some cheese pizza. Cameron doesn’t eat much. I eat wayyy too much. Men take the kids to the amusement park until 11pm, women go shopping.

Sunday: We pack and leave. My GPS set on ‘easiest’ setting takes us across country, until I tell it to go the fastest and it takes us back to the interstate. Lots of accidents on the roads and traffic when we make it back into town, but we made it home safely.